No. 1292

Trout a l'Hoteliere

Truites a l'Hoteliere

Have one fish weighing a quarter of a pound for each person, split it through the entire length of the back; take out the middle bone and lay it on the flesh side on a buttered dish, pour over some oil, season, and set into a quick oven; when done put inside each trout a spoonful of maitre d'hotel butter (No. 581), close, dress and garnish with potatoes, English style. (These English potatoes are potatoes cut the same size and shape as a pigeon's egg, then steamed for about fifteen minutes.) Serve a separate sauce made of espagnole (No. 414) and meat glaze (No. 402), finishing it at the last moment with a piece of good butter and lemon juice; run it through a tammy, then add chopped parsley.

← No. 1291 Trout a la Cambaceres Salmon & Trout No. 1293 Trout a la Hussarde →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a brigade kitchen with espagnole and glaze already on the stove; the fish itself takes under ten minutes. Read the sauce as optional and the butter as essential.

"A quick oven"Conventionally a hot oven, somewhere around 400–450°F. A split quarter-pound trout at that heat will be done in well under ten minutes; judge it by the flesh at the thickest part turning opaque and the fin pulling free rather than by the clock.
Fish sizeA quarter-pound trout is smaller than anything most fishmongers sell now. A farmed rainbow trout runs 8 to 12 oz dressed, which serves one generously; split and cook it the same way, allowing a couple of minutes more.
Splitting through the backThis is butterflying from the spine side rather than the belly, which leaves the fish in one piece with a hinge along the belly skin. Cut down either side of the backbone, snip it out at head and tail, and the trout opens flat. A fishmonger will do it if asked.
Maître d'hôtel butterRanhofer's No. 581 is softened butter worked with chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Make it ahead, chill it into a log, and slice a coin into each fish while it is still hot from the oven so it melts into the flesh.
The sauce, honestlyEspagnole (No. 414) and meat glaze (No. 402) are multi-day stock reductions. Without them, a well-reduced veal or beef stock finished off the heat with butter, lemon juice and parsley gives the same effect. Never let it boil after the butter goes in or it will break.
"Run it through a tammy"A tammy is a worsted straining cloth wrung between two people. A fine-mesh conical strainer does the job; strain before adding the parsley, not after.
Potatoes English styleTurned potatoes the size of a pigeon's egg — roughly 1½ inches. Fifteen minutes of steaming suits pieces that small; test with a skewer rather than trusting the clock, as waxy varieties hold longer than floury ones.
YieldOne split fish per person. The recipe lays the fish flesh side down on the buttered dish and seasons it after the oil goes over, with the butter added afterwards seasoning the inside.

A Little History

À l'hôtelière means, more or less, "the innkeeper's way" — one of the many nineteenth-century French garnish names that borrowed the prestige of a trade rather than a place. The formula is often associated with maître d'hôtel butter and a simple grilled or oven-roasted fish or meat, though later French usage also involves duxelles. Charles Ranhofer, who ran the Delmonico's kitchens in New York for over thirty years and published The Epicurean in 1894, gives dozens of trout preparations in this section, calling for trout in small sizes, a portion fish of four ounces being unremarkable then and nearly unobtainable now. The cross-references to numbered butters and sauces are the book's working method: it was written for professionals who already had espagnole and glaze in the larder, not for a household starting from nothing.